The present invention relates to an electronic device controlling apparatus and an electronic device controlling method for providing overall control of electronic devices such as TV sets installed in a number of rooms in the household.
In recent years, many households have had a number of so-called audio-visual (AV) devices such as a TV set, a video tape recorder (VTR), a digital versatile disc (DVD), recording/reproducing device, and an audio recording/reproducing system set up in each of their rooms.
Illustratively, common-use AV equipment may be installed in the living room and personal-use AV devices may be set up in each family member's room. These devices have become so ubiquitous that the family members, wherever they are in the household, can watch TV programs and enjoy contents reproduced from tapes, discs or other storage media.
Suppose that in the above setup, a person having entered a given room wants to watch a TV program. In such a case, the person operates conventionally a remote controller of the AV device in the room or suitable keys on the device to turn it on and select the desired TV channel.
However, it has been generally perceived that having to operate the AV device with its keys or with its remote controller every time a person enters a room is a bothersome chore.